Speech Disfluency Laboratory (SDL)

Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Welcome to the Speech Disfluency Laboratory (SDL) at Indiana University, directed by Dr. Julie Anderson! The overall objective of the SDL is to acquire a better understanding of the underlying nature and etiology of developmental stuttering.

Developmental stuttering has often been described, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, as “…a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” (from a radio broadcast, October 1939). Although there has been an exponential increase in our understanding of developmental stuttering since the field first emerged early in the 20th century, it remains an enigmatic disorder. For example, why does stuttering tend to develop during periods of rapid language growth? Why does early stuttering tend to wax and wane over a period of days, weeks, or months? The answers to these questions remain as puzzling today as they were 75 years ago.

Research in the SDL seeks to resolve some of these puzzling and challenging questions by providing new insight into the underlying origin and development of childhood stuttering from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. To learn more about us and the research being conducted in the lab, please click the tabs in the menu on the top.

The SDL is located on the bottom floor of the Speech and Hearing Clinic Building at 200 South Jordan Avenue (next to the Musical Arts Center). Our research is funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a division of the National Institutes of Health.